Ashmore eyes growth, outreach at Holy Resurrection

He took over as acting rector at the Belle Vernon orthodox church three months ago.

Rev. Evan Ashmore, the new rector at Holy Resurrection Orthodox Church in Belle Vernon had a unique past prior to pursuing ministry in the church. He worked in mental health crisis intervention and had a Protestant religious background.

Ashmore attended Saint Tikhon’s Seminary before being assigned to Holy Resurrection Orthodox Church by Archbishop Melchisedek, who oversees Pittsburgh and the Western Pennsylvania region.

Ashmore interned at several parishes while in seminary, but he stated that many of the calls he received while working in the crisis call center mirrored the same principles of confessionals, with callers showing vulnerability and pursuing visibility and help with their situations. It was the calls where people needed to be seen and supported that prompted Ashmore to consider ministry, even when his initial plans were to become a deacon.

“Long story short, my primary career before I went to seminary was mental health crisis intervention and suicide prevention work,” Ashmore said. “I was working a mix of things, but call centers covering several counties of Pennsylvania were the main part of it. I worked in that and, as a child, I grew up Protestant and considered ministry, but when I was received by the Orthodox Church, I figured, ‘Let’s throw that out the window. I can’t sing. I don’t know what’s going on here.’” While working in mental health crisis intervention, Ashmore got the “nagging thought” that he should be doing something else. He said many of the callers he talked to were looking “to be able to give a confession to reveal themselves to another person, to still be loved.”

“I had this thought, that this is what we have in the church,” Ashmore said. “This is what the church offers, to be loved, to have our burdens relieved by our Lord Jesus Christ. So, a mix of being already very involved in the church and other things, the next step was to go to seminary, and then it became what was after that I was kind of open to.

“I wasn’t dead set on ordained ministry, but I was open to it. It became the point where I could be ordained a deacon, I can do the things that deacons are doing with the education I was getting at seminary. Eventually it came around to my father confessor and others around me, saying, ‘You know what, Evan, just accept that you’re gonna be ordained a priest. You’re going to. Go ahead and do it.’” Ashmore has hope that the parish will continually and steadily grow in the size of its congregation and in service to the broader community of Belle Vernon.

The church held a food festival Sunday, collaborating with Baba’s Kitchen to serve halupki, halushki, pierogies and beef stroganoff, with homemade bread and baked goods as part of a separate bake sale.

“As a parish in the Monongahela Valley, which is struggling in terms of Orthodox clergy, it has a lot of potential, is relatively healthy and has had clergy for all of its life as a parish, so it’s something to keep up with,” Ashmore said.

Ashmore has been the acting rector for the parish for approximately three months, but has quickly come to know the community the parishioners of Holy Resurrection Orthodox Church. Ashmore said the hos- pitality and care for one another among the parishioners stands out.

“A highlight for me is the hospitality of the people and our community looking out for one another,” Ashmore said. “If somebody is having a hard time or some tragedy has struck, I get a call from multiple different parishioners saying, ‘Father Evan, you need to hear about what happens so you can serve this person who’s in need,’ even though I was likely already with that person.

“They’re looking out for one another, our community is wonderful in that, and it’s been such a blessing to be part of a community that already has that love for one another, that already has that orientation towards service to each other.”

Matthew Kowasic, a long-standing parishioner of Holy Resurrection Orthodox Church, has a shared history with the parish from childhood. He and his mother were some of the first people to contribute to the development of the parish into what it does today. Even though he temporarily left the parish in 1995, he returned in 2017 and stated that he still felt at home despite being gone for a long period of time.

“This parish was founded before it was actually built,” Kowasic said, “and I was part of the mission process with my mother. So, I’m one of the first 10 children baptized here. I was here from childhood up until 1995. Then I left in 1995, went to various parishes and came back periodically, but then I moved back here in 2017 for good. I’ve been back here since 2017, but I’ve had history with the parish since 1969.”

Kowasic attended the same seminary as Ashmore and the previous priest who served the parish. They were all at Saint Tikhon’s Seminary in different years. Kowasic said Ashmore brings energy and insightful sermons that show a lot of potential to grow church attendance and expand the capabilities of the parish.

“I feel he’s doing remarkably well,” Kowasic said. “As someone who’s kind of a liturgical geek, we both went to the same seminary, and the previous priest went to the same seminary as well. So, there’s definitely a serving style, and there’s a different, definite mentality that comes from the school.

“I really am encouraged by Father Evan in his sermons, and the sermons are absolutely outstanding. It’s just the energy that he brings to the parish, I think. We’ve got a lot of older people, a lot of newer people and keeping people uplifted, excited and encouraged about their faith can be challenging at times. But I think we’re in a good swing.”

Holy Resurrection is part of Orthodox Church in America, specifically listed as part of the Archdiocese of Pittsburgh and Western Pennsylvania.

Founded Dec. 19, 1966, by its first rector, Rev. John Kluchko, Holy Resurrection started out as a congregation that gathered in a shared space. Rev. Ronald Johnson and his congregation of Lynnwood Lutheran Church offered the use of their building to serve as an Orthodox chapel, and the first Orthodox service was celebrated in Belle Vernon Chapel along with members of Holy Trinity Church Nov. 1, 1964.

The parish was incorporated Dec. 19, 1966 as Holy Resurrection Orthodox Church of the Belle Vernon Area. The church council, in combination with Rev. Kluchko, organized the building fund with the goal of raising money to be used toward the purchase of land to construct the Holy Resurrection Church building.

On Jan. 3, 1968, new bids were opened and the contract to construct the new parish was awarded to Henry Motycki, president of Sunset Valley Development Inc., for construction. The parish’s construction began in March of 1968, and the first service was held in the new church building on March 30, 1969.